Public must be onboard with ‘national mission’ for clean power, say experts

The Government must get the public onboard with the “mission” to deliver clean power by 2030 and spell out the benefits to them, experts have urged.

A report by a group led by the Royal Academy of Engineering calls for the move to decarbonise the grid by the end of the decade to be treated as a national mission, similar to the work of the vaccines task force or the switch from town gas to natural gas in a decade from the late 1960s.

Labour has pledged to deliver clean power by 2030 as one of its central “missions”, while the previous Tory government had aimed to ensure 95% of electricity was low-carbon by that date, with full decarbonisation by 2035.

The report from the independent working group warns there needs to be a sharp ramp-up of offshore wind, deployment of onshore wind and solar, and extending the life of nuclear plants where possible to meet the 2030 goal.

But there will also be a role for gas, to support security of supply, the experts said, as they called for any new gas plants to be “genuinely” ready to capture their carbon – for example being built in a location near where carbon capture and storage infrastructure will be built.

The experts suggested that “clean power by 2030” could see a fully zero carbon grid on about 75% of days, with a small role for gas on the remaining days.

They also warned there would be a need for more clean electricity after 2030 as industry, transport and heating switched from fossil fuels to low carbon tech such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.

To achieve the shift, the Government needs a radical approach, the National Engineering Policy Centre report says.

It must build strong public and industry support for the vision for clean power, spelling out the benefits for people.

These include personal benefits, such as lower bills from signing up to an electricity tariff that lets the supplier have some flexibility on when to charge an electric vehicle, and the jobs that clean power can bring to an area.

And there are societal benefits, including avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, and reducing costs to the NHS from respiratory conditions from switching away from polluting boilers and vehicles, the experts said.

They called for strong central leadership, backed by the Prime Minister, and a clear strategic plan for the country to deliver the infrastructure needed, which would then filter down to regional and local areas.

And the Government must tackle difficult decisions on planning, consents and the current delays to connecting new schemes to the grid, they warned, such as local opposition to overhead power lines or the higher costs on bills from putting them underground.

There also needs to be a digitally-enabled system, which will let the public engage with their power suppliers and save them money, for example through the different tariffs, and a proactive approach to procurement and regulation to make sure the UK can get ahead in the global race for clean tech.

And they must keep a long-term view in mind so that the focus on 2030 does not mean any delays to the best options post-2030.

Dr Simon Harrison, co-chair of the independent working group, and group head of strategy at Mott MacDonald, said: “The scale of work required to decarbonise the electricity system in such a short period of time cannot be underestimated.

“But the precedent set by the rapid delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine shows that the collective pursuit of a national mission can put a seemingly impossible target within reach.

A radical shift in our approach will be needed, but the engineering community has already come together to map that out in this report, and it is ready to roll up its sleeves to deliver the clean energy we need.”

And he said the Government needed to articulate a strong vision for clean energy focusing on the things that really matter to people.

“They need to really engage people with this vision and seek to get society on board, understand their views, and help them to embrace the coming changes.

“The vision can be one of a clean, resilient, largely electrified energy system tailored to individuals’ needs through digital enablement, both creating and supporting opportunities for economic growth and employment throughout Great Britain and contributing to healthier lives and planet through pollution reduction,” he said.

The experts said they drew inspiration from the success of the vaccine task force’s roll out of the Covid jab.

But asked if there had been a comparable shift in national infrastructure in the UK in the past, Professor Nilay Shah, from Imperial College London, also said: “The transition from town gas to natural gas is a good example where every single house was touched in some way.

“And a huge amount of infrastructure was delivered which was literally end-to-end from fields in the North Sea which, interestingly, were planned in a strategic, spatial way.

“They actually acknowledged the one thing they didn’t want to do was a Victorian railway system where every developer who had a licence did their own thing,” he said.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “We are taking immediate action implementing our long-term plan to make Britain a clean energy superpower.

“This is the only way to guarantee our energy security and protect billpayers permanently, which is why we will double onshore wind, treble solar and quadruple offshore wind by 2030.

“We will also maintain a strategic reserve of gas power stations to guarantee security of supply.”